McCain Fails to Gain in Florida

Despite Campaigning, McCain Hampered By Promise of 3rd Bush Term

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - On the fifth anniversary of "Mission Accomplished," a new Quinnipiac University poll provides more bad news for John '100 Years' McCain.

Despite putting on appearances of a general election campaign, McCain fails to get more than 44% support against either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in Florida. The poll was conducted April 23-29 while McCain was making multiple campaign stops in Florida.

According to news reports, McCain continues to lack a Florida campaign infrastructure despite a clear path to the Republican nomination and the support of part-time Republican state leaders, Mel Martinez and Charlie Crist. His recent trip to Florida, during which he promoted the failed healthcare policies of the Bush administration as his own new ideas, was greeted by Florida Democrats highlighting his admitted failure to understand basic economics.

The "economy is the most important issue in their vote, 50 percent of Florida voters say, with 22 percent who list the war in Iraq and 10 percent who list health care... Only 24 percent say the economy will improve under McCain." [Quinnipiac Poll, 5/1/08, http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x2882.xml?ReleaseID=1173]
 
At the same time, consumer confidence in Florida has dropped to a new 16-year low: 66. This is the lowest it has been since December 1991 when it hit 64. "The question on everyone's mind is how we are going to get out of this slow economy," said Chris McCarty, director of the University of Florida's Survey Research Center at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. [http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n4-043008.cfm]

McCain's close ties to and faithful voting record with the current President may be hurting him as well, with the poll showing Bush's approval has now dropped to 24% in the state. [Quinnipiac Poll, 5/1/08]

"All the predictions about McCain having an advantage in Florida have proven wrong. Florida voters won't be won over by recycled rhetoric about the same, out-of-touch policies of the Bush administration," Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said. "The Democratic nominee will be well positioned to win Florida's 27 electoral votes and the presidency because both of our candidates are fully committed to getting the economy back on track for middle-class Americans and bringing our troops home safely from Iraq."